Recent Volunteer Gardener Clips
Zoo Garden
March 27, 2025
The team at UT Botanical Garden in Knoxville Tennessee have put together a garden area that is delighting children, and piquing their interest in plants and gardening. This zoo garden features those plants that have a common name associated with an animal such as monkey grass and Lamb's Ear.
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Spring Ephemerals
March 27, 2025
Spring ephemerals are long-lived plants with a very short life cycle or period of active growth. Annette Shrader has found a grand collection of spring blooming ephemerals with interesting form and outstanding color at Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh North Carolina.
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Southern Cottage Garden
March 27, 2025
Every bit of this urban yard is part of the garden design, whether its the front yard with a definite 'wow' factor, the planted strip along the driveway, or the secluded sanctuary at the rear property line. In this garden, the right plants are in the right places. There's a rhythm and flow between the spaces, and each part leads you on to the next pretty spot.
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Winterizing Ornamental Beds
March 20, 2025
Autumn should be a busy time in ornamental garden beds. Tasks are necessary to get plants ready for colder weather, but also looking toward what improvements are needed by next spring. We visit Andrew Jackson's Hermitage to see what activities are underway in their extensive historic garden beds to ensure healthy plants and tidy beds.
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Color and Performance Late in the Season
March 20, 2025
When peak summer blooms begin to fade, there's plenty of annuals and perennials that can offer lots of color and vitality. You can keep those garden beds and containers full of interest up until first frost with plants such as Mexican bush sage, pineapple sage, asters, coreopsis and more.
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Garden time = family time
March 20, 2025
What began as a few raised beds in a spot that couldn't grow grass is now a large garden space that's turning out loads of tomatoes, cucumbers, all kinds of vegetables, plus pretty flowers. Sheri Gramer tours this grand garden where every family member takes part.
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A garden designed with an artist’s eye
October 10, 2024
Troy Marden showcases what was once a typical, grassy residential lot that was transformed by the homeowners into a gorgeous collection of display beds and borders with desirable plants and lots of artistic touches. Japanese maples are definitely the darlings of this garden.
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Mums
October 03, 2024
Peak bloom time for chrysanthemums is September and October. There's a grand selection of these autumn favorites at Grandaddy's Farm in Estill Springs, Tennessee. Tammy Algood gets tips on how to keep the flowers looking good all season long, and how to plant them in the landscape for autumn color every year.
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Collection of Color and Variety
October 03, 2024
We tour the home garden of a self-described plant collector. Her goals for the design were cohesiveness, some symmetry, a bit of formality, and accessibility. She achieved all that, and the garden is beautiful. It features a central circular bed with four paths radiating out. Each has a plant palette sure to please.
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Earthworms: The Good, and the Destructive
September 26, 2024
Host Jeff Poppen, a biodynamic farmer, uses a lot of compost. By doing that, he is rewarded with a plentiful amount of earthworms that aerate the soil and leave nutrients behind. However, not all worms are beneficial. Jeff meets up with an entomologist to learn about a destructive species known as the crazy jumping worm.
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A Mindful Landscape
September 26, 2024
Rita Venable visits with a homeowner who began gardening during the pandemic. She had inherited her landscaping when she purchased the home. Now a native plant enthusiast, she's converted those existing landscape areas into garden beds where native plants, shrubs and trees are performing well.